You’ve been living in the same house for a number of years. It took you a while, but you finally tracked back the year you had your wall-to-wall carpets installed. It was 2006. That’s 10 years ago.
They look dirty, worn out, and in serious need of some help. Either you don’t really want to or have money in your budget to completely replace them, so you’ve been looking into a carpet cleaning service.
You contact a few companies, give them basic information, and most of them give you a generic answer that they can certainly make them look a lot better, but they might not commit to saying they can make them look like new again.
Unfortunately, though, none of them have been completely honest with you.
The reality is that carpets have a life expectancy. It’s generally between 10 and 12 years, at the most. The more abuse and use they see, the less likely they’re going to make it to 12 years.
If you have pets, you can shorten that anticipated life expectancy by a couple of years, especially if you have cats that have a tendency to use your carpet as a scratching post.
Over time you begin to notice wear patterns, the carpet is dull, looks shaggy and worn out, or pieces of the carpeting are being found all over the place.
The reality is simple, even if it’s not something you want to hear: it’s time to replace that carpeting.
Can a professional carpet cleaning service get it to look better? Sure, but only to a limited degree and it won’t last very long.
Carpeting begins to break down and so does the foam underpadding beneath it. When you have your carpeting pulled up to have it replaced, take a look at what they find underneath. You may be completely amazed at just how much dust and dirt is sitting underneath there. Every time somebody steps onto the carpet, it’s vibrating the floor underneath, kicking some of that dust back up into the carpet and ultimately into the air.
Once you have your carpeting replaced, keep up with its cleanliness with a professional cleaning service at least once a year and you’ll extend the life of the carpet by a few years, at least.